1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel adenosine triphosphate derivative and, more particularly, to an adenosine triphosphate derivative useful as a ligand for affinity chromatography or as an enzyme auxiliary substrate (cofactor) in industrial enzyme applications.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Affinity chromatography has been studied recently as an effective means for isolating biological materials. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is a very important cofactor for enzyme reactions. Accordingly, when a material prepared by fixing ATP to a suitable matrix is used as an affinity adsorbent, it becomes possible to isolate and purify enzymes by affinity chromatography. Further, in case of many a chemical reaction utilizing an enzyme system in combination with a cofactor such as ATP on an industrial scale, it is very important to be able to smoothly carry out the mutual conversion of ATP and adenosine diphosphate (ADP), and separation of the cofactor from by-products is required. It is generally recognized that supporting the cofactor on a suitable matrix is the best method of facilitating separation.
Accordingly, there are many instances in which it is necessary to attach the ATP to a suitable matrix. However, it is difficult to attach the ATP itself to the matrix and it is thus necessary to introduce functional groups into the ATP which can be easily linked to a matrix.
ATP derivatives generally have a low substrate activity as compared with ATP. Accordingly, it has been desired to find ATP derivatives having a higher substrate activity.
N.sup.6 -(carboxymethyl) ATP produced by Mosbach, European Journal of Biochemistry, Vol. 53, (1975), page 481 and N.sup.6 -[N-(6-aminohexyl)carbamoyl] ATP produced by Yamazaki et al, European Journal of Biochemistry, Vol. 77, (1977), page 511 are two ATP derivatives. Hitherto, it has been known that when a functional group is introduced into a position other than the N.sup.6 -position of ATP very low substrate activity is obtained. While both of the aforementioned compounds bear the functional group at the N.sup.6 -position, these compounds do not have a very high substrate activity and problems arise on their practical use. Because the N.sup.6 -carboxymethyl compound is chemically unstable, side reactions occur when counting to a matrix or introduction of a spacer is carried out by reacting the N.sup.6 -carboxyl group with an amino group containing compound and, consequently, it is very difficult to accomplish the desired reaction. On the other hand, the latter compound is synthesized from ADP which is much more expensive than ATP.